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Last week, I made my attempt at welcoming newbies to the wonderful world of Internet Relay Chats. This week, we’re going to step things up to the next level for those of you who have decided that HydraIRC belongs in your taskbar. If you’re anything like me, you feel it’s necessary to be in 50 different channels at once (even though you know you’ll never be able to keep up with all of that).

It’s time for you to learn how to save yourself a lot of time at every startup and automate the process of joining your favorite IRC servers and channels. This is, by the way, another reason why HydraIRC is the superior client to those of you who are new to the chat universe. Creating “scripts” is incredibly simple and intuitive.

Let’s start off by going into the Options menu and clicking Prefs…. A window of preferences should then pop up for you.

On the left, click Scripts. At this point, you should see a single option of “SomeNetwork_OnLoggedIn“.

In my screenshot, you’ll see many more because I’ve set up autojoins on several servers. Nonetheless, this is an example script profile that HydraIRC has created for you. Using it alone, some users can gauge how to set up their scripts. You can learn a little more about command/script profiles on the official website, but let me do some basic explaining.

HydraIRC has three built-in profile name suffixes that trigger the program to automatically execute a script. These three are as follows:

• OnStartUp, which will execute the script immediately when the application is launched.
• OnLoggedIn, which will execute the script when you have joined a particular server.
• OnJoin, which will execute the script when you join a particular channel.

By creating profiles with the names “OnStartUp”, “{SERVER}_OnLoggedIn”, or “~{SERVER}_{CHANNEL}_OnJoin”, you are authorizing HydraIRC to automatically execute the scripts during those conditions. If we wanted a script to automatically execute when we join the EFNet server, we’d name the profile “EFNet_OnLoggedIn“. If we wanted to execute the script only when we join the #chat channel on EFNet, we’d name it “~EFNet_#chat_OnJoin“.

Let’s go over an example. We’ll use GameSurge, as we did in my first post. By default, it is included with HydraIRC. On the server list, it is given the exact name “GameSurge” (which will need to be exact, case sensitive, in the profile name).

On Gamesurge, we’d like to automatically join #sourcemod, #gamesurge, and #linux when we connect. So we’ve done the hard part. Now here’s our script, “GameSurge_OnLoggedIn”:

/quietjoin sourcemode,gamesurge,linux

It’s very simple. The “/quietjoin” command is ideal when you’re joining multiple channels at once as it softens each join. Afterwards, the channel names (pound signs are not required) delimited by commas.

Now what if you want to automatically join GameSurge every time you launch HydraIRC? That’s simple also. Your script profile would be “OnStartUp”:

/server irc.gamesurge.net

That’s it. At this point, when you start HydraIRC you’d now automatically connect to the GameSurge server and automatically join those three channels. Do you want to connect to multiple servers on startup? Just add a new line with the following (with FreeNode in this example):

/newserver irc.freenode.net

Every power IRC uses user scripts. Automation is one of my favorite things in the world, and you’ll find that automating certain parts of your chatting experience will allow you to do what you came to do – enjoy it. If I’ve still been unable to convince you that HydraIRC is the way to go, check out a few interesting scripts for mIRC.

Holler at me in the comments if you’re having trouble or want to share any more useful scripts for the IRC platform.

One of the most widely used cloud-based storage services on the Internet, Dropbox, is offering users the opportunity to add up to 5GB of free storage space by simply uploading photos and videos to their storage account during a beta testing period of a Dropbox experimental build.

Dropbox is testing a new feature that allows users to automatically upload photos and videos from their USB-connected camera, camera phone, or SD card reader.

In order to use the service and receive additional free space, you will need to download a beta version of Dropbox and install it on your Mac or PC. (It might be wise to back up your current Dropbox data before downloading and installing the beta version.)

This experimental build of Dropbox works with Windows, Mac OS 10.5 and above and Linux. Link to this forum page for the latest listings and upgrades.

After the beta version is installed, you simply connect say your camera, phone, or SD card to your computer, and Dropbox will automatically detect images and ask if you want them imported to a Camera Uploads folder automatically installed in your Dropbox account.

 

Dropbox clarified that “you can’t get up to 5 GB of free space with this feature, if you count the initial 500 MB space for the first photo import.” Because Dropbox is testing the importing process, you most likely cannot receive space increase unless you use the importer popup window.

Dropbox encourages users to keep plugging in their cameras so they can “snipe all the common bugs during the beta testing.

Last week we were interested in your tweeting habits, and asked you how often you share on Twitter. We wanted to get an idea of how frequently people tweet, and found out the surprising fact that more than %40 of you don’t tweet at all.

Out of the 145 readers who voted, 19% don’t even have a Twitter account, 23% have an account but never tweet, 23% tweet 1-5 times per week, 19% tweet 1-5 times per day, 7% tweet 6-10 times per day, 5.5% tweet 11-20 times per day, and 3.5% tweet more than 2- times daily.

Full results and this week’s poll after the jump.

While not a whole lot of readers voted, it was still surprising to find out that so many of you are not big on tweeting, with a staggering 65% who tweet 5 times a week or less. In a world so consumed by Twitter and hashtags, it’s interesting to see such results.

This week’s poll question is: What Do You Think Of Windows 8′s Metro UI?

Microsoft Metro UI is not entirely new, with early glimpses of dating back to earlier versions of Windows Media Center and Zune, but with Windows Phone 7 and Windows 8, Microsoft made sure we all heard of and knew what Metro UI is. Metro is a design language which is based on certain principles such as specific fonts, use of tiles and text for navigation, and more, and by utilizing in in Windows 8, Microsoft is trying to go in a completely different direction. This UI has gotten mixed reviews (although more good than bad), with some people thinking it’s the best thing since Windows added a Start button, and others hating the thought of having that as their main operating system. Where do you stand?

What Do You Think Of Windows 8′s Metro UI?

What is it about Metro UI that you like or don’t like? Do you think it’s good on some products but not on others? If so, which? We’re waiting for your comments.

Amazon wants to sell you stuff. If there is something you are willing to spend money on, Amazon will find a way to take your money and deliver said item to you. Now, they are moving into the lucrative world of sports memorabilia. They are starting off this new Sports Collectible Store with more than two million unique items ranging from relatively cheap collectible cards to high-priced autographed items.

For now, this new store is only available in the United States. They have items from many of the major sports organizations like the NHL, NFL, MLB, NBA and International Federation of Association Football (IFAF). For any fan of the major sports organizations, you will be able to find something that tickles your fancy on this new Amazon service.

Everything purchased on the collectible store comes with Amazon’s AtoZ guarantee, so you will always receive the same level of customer satisfaction you expect when purchasing an item from Amazon.

In addition to searching for an item in the store, you can also browse based on the sport, year, type, team and price. This allows you to find what you are looking for, even if you don’t know exactly what that is.

Source: The Next Web

Sound Sunday is a weekly feature promoting free album downloads. Every edition invites you to explore various genres and artists from around the world. With this edition let me take you on a journey of ambient and electronic soundscapes that are out of this world.

Please share your thoughts and post your feedback in the comments. Album submissions, suggestions, and genre requests via email [tina at makeuseof dot com] are most welcome!

Arundel – Olive Caves

Genre: ambient, electronic, soundscapes, trip hop

Olive Caves – EP (2012) by Arundel

From their Facebook page: “Arundel is the name encompassing many of the musical creations of Brisbane (Australia) resident Lucas Arundell. He plays the role of songwriter, composer, arranger and producer, creating a broad range of songs, grooves, soundscapes, remixes and instrumental pieces.”
Arundel is supported by the independent record label Paper Street Records. You can view the video for the title track A Deep Freeze here.

Olive Caves is a name your price download from Bandcamp. Donations to support the artist and his team are most appreciated.

Magic City – Little Bits EP

Genre: alternative, indie, dreampop, lo-fi, rock

Little Bits EP by Magic City

Magic City is a lo-fi indie band from Chicago, Illinois. Their record label writes about the album: “Magic City is this kind of band as their music is a dreamy commentary about life, love, and the human condition. Releasing their E.P. Little Bits back in November, Magic City launched itself onto the Chicago music scene as butterflies dreaming of being people. This is not to say that their music is petty in any way as their E.P. is fantastic. The thing about Little Bits is that its sound and lyrics are draped in an ephemeral curtain of dreamscapes and distortions.
But behind these dreamscapes and distortions Lauren Whitacre meows about how hard it is sometimes to be a person. Her vocals are in a similar way to PJ Harvey’s but her lyrical messages are far more draped in blue than Harvey’s could ever be.”

Little Bits EP is a name your price download from Bandcamp.

Spiral – The Traveler

Genre: progressive, rock, ambient, psychadelic rock, art rock

The Traveler by Spiral

From the album page: “This is part 2 of a planned trilogy of records telling the story of Rip and his daughter Anomoly. To listen to part 1 “The Capital in Ruins” please follow this link: thespiral.bandcamp.com/album/the-capital-in-ruins And look forward to part 3, which is in the works.”
Spiral was previously featured on Sound Sunday with their albums Citizen, The Capital in Ruins, Machine, and Your Kindness Let a Monster In.

The Traveler is a name your price download from Bandcamp.

Galway – Mria

Genre: indie, pop, chillwave, dreamgaze, dreampop

Mria by Galway

Galway are four young guys from Moscow, Russia. Mria contains some re-recordings of earlier material, embedded in a selection of new songs, which they recorded over the past couple of months. It is an album of indie pop melodies muffled in atmospheric sounds. Catchy guitar solos and energizing drums occasionally break through the soundscape, such as in my favorite song of the album Each Of Us Loves Space Tears.

Mria is a name your price download from Bandcamp.

Glass Kites – Selftitled

Genre: alternative, progressive, ambient, experimental, dreampop, rock

Glass Kites by Glass Kites

From their Facebook page: “Wowing audiences with emotive progressions, hypnotic grooves, lush walls of sound, joyful lyricism, and unique progressive composition Glass Kites caters to the music fan yearning to be impacted and enveloped.”
The record was recorded at Vancouver’s Warehouse Studio.

The selftitled album Glass Kites is a name your price download from Bandcamp.

Something Fiction – Botany

Genre: alternative, electronic, experimental, progressive, psychedelic

Botany EP by Something Fiction

From their Last.fm page: “Something Fiction is an experimental music project formed by vocalist/instrumentalist/producer Matt Humble, guitarist Raul Rodriguez, and percussionist Nick Greder of San Antonio, Texas. The music combines electronic synth sounds with ethnic and acoustic instruments supported by a vibrato driven vocal performance.”

Botany is a free download from Bandcamp.

Mindthings – Resonance

Genre: ambient, electronic, chillout, chillwave, dreampop

Resonance by mindthings

Mindthings is the music project of Clément Peres, an event producer, illustrator, and music composer from Bordeaux, France. Resonance is his sixth album.

Resonance is a name your price download from Bandcamp.

Giraffage – Comfort

Genre: indie, ambient, electronic, dreampop, hip hop

Comfort by Giraffage

From Giraffage’s Last.fm page: “Giraffage is the creation of 21-year old multi-instrumentalist/producer Charlie Yin of San Francisco, California. The general sound of Giraffage is described as a weaver of refreshingly crisp electro dream pop tunes that thread their way through loose-knit grooves and tightly-toothed rhythms. Gaining inspiration from things as diverse as dreams or the weather, Giraffage evokes a woozy yet familiar mood that is sure to stimulate your eardrums and leave you feeling a sense of nostalgia and melancholy.”

Comfort is a name your price download from Bandcamp.

Kleptonaut – The Golden Age Of Space Travel

Genre: ambient, electronic, downtempo

The Golden Age Of Space Travel by Kleptonaut

From the album page: “All music is built on the shoulders of the road traveled by giants and gnats. This music sometimes follows that road and tries to get some speed, and when it’s lucky, and you happen to be on board, it just might lift off and surprise you.
These 10 tracks were all made in the last year. Moogfest 2010 was a major recent inspiration. Michelle is a perpetual inspiration. This album was mostly for her as she has been my main audience of 1.
The album is free for the taking to any ears willing to lend themselves.
Any single person paying for the album, before or after downloading it, will encourage me greatly to make more music.”

The Golden Age Of Space Travel is a name your price download from Bandcamp.

Symphony of Science – Symphony of Science Bundle v1?.?3

Genre: electronic, remix, symphony

Symphony of Science Bundle v1.3 by Symphony of Science

From the project’s homepage: “The Symphony of Science is a musical project of John D Boswell, designed to deliver scientific knowledge and philosophy in musical form. The project owes its existence in large measure to the classic PBS Series Cosmos, by Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan, and Steve Soter, as well as all the other featured figures and visuals. Continuation of the videos relies on generous support from fans and followers.”

Symphony of Science Bundle v1?.?3 is a name your price download from Bandcamp.

New to Sound Sunday? Past editions of Sound Sunday are available here.

Feel free to get in touch with me [tina at makeuseof dot com] to share free material, suggestions, and feedback or simply add your comments below.

Microsoft SkyDrive has been around for a while, but was recently given a fairly significant update. We took some time to talk to Microsoft about the new features and play with it all, so here’s a breakdown of what you can expect.

You’ll need a Windows Live account to start making full use of SkyDrive. For those too lazy to read – there’s 25gb of storage, web-based versions of popular Office apps; collaborative editing that doesn’t require everyone to login; and an iPhone app you should probably avoid for now.

Web-Based Office Apps

In SkyDrive, you now have access to cut-down versions of popular Office apps, to both create and edit documents without the need for a full offline Office suite (though you can at any point open your SkyDrive files in regular Office apps, then seamlessly save back again). Personally, I’m not a fan of Google Docs, so if your documents are predominantly MS formats and you’d like to move into the cloud without the hassle of importing and exporting etc, this is a great solution – and free.

The web-based versions work across OS, taking advantages of new HTML5 standards rather than Silverlight, so that’s something to keep in mind if someone mails a Word document to your shiny iMac when you don’t have Office for Mac.

Collaborative Editing

You’ll be pleased to know that the cloud versions of Office now support collaborative editing, or at least a hybrid form of it. First up – this feature isn’t as advanced as say Google Docs, where you can see collaborators typing in real time and changes are done at a character level. Instead, SkyDrive takes the approach of locking certain parts of the document – a paragraph will be marked as being edited for instance. Once changes are available to view, you need to manually click the update changes button.

It’s not perfect, but it’s a huge step forward in a world where Office documents are still the norm in many companies – and changes at the paragraph level are more than sufficient for most of us. It’s a shame it doesn’t work asynchronously though as manually refreshing things is quite tedious.

Public Share Links and Edit Privileges

Along with collaborative editing comes an easy way to share your files and folders. Three levels of links are available – public, can edit, and view only. You can either share this straight out to your Facebook and Linked In status, or get a regular URL to share in Twitter etc.

One really cool feature is that you don’t need a Windows Live account to edit the documents if someone sends you a link, so it’s a fantastic tool get anyone’s input without complicated sign ups. Compare to Google Docs which requires all collborators to have a Google Account in order to sign in and edit documents, which can be a real hassle with less tech-savvy users.

On the downside, the share links are ridiculously lengthy. I can’t help thinking that some kind of automated link shortening service would have been really easy to add. As it is, a simple view-only link to a photo comes out like this:

https://skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?cid=86d16a5e767798c4&resid=86D16A5E767798C4!107&parid=86D16A5E767798C4!102&authkey=!AArcUia4KgCYgbI

25GB Totally Free Storage

Even if you don’t need collaborative features, SkyDrive’s free 25gb is a generous cloud storage locker. It doesn’t sync with your files, so you can offload files totally to the cloud if you want, or just use it for backup. The interface is very Explorer-like so Windows users will feel right at home, but it also works just fine on a Mac. We had a few issues during testing with Chrome though, so stick to Firefox or Safari (or Explorer if you insist).

iPhone App

Unlike Apple’s iCloud service, Microsoft has made a big effort to make the SkyDrive available on other devices. Unfortunately, the SkyDrive app for iPhone is decidedly under-developed – the user interface is confusing at best; files must be uploaded one by one as there’s no mass-upload feature; a manual refresh is often needed to keep it in sync with the web-based version; and worst of all – if you take a photo directly within the app, and it fails to upload (as it often did in my testing), the photo is lost forever – it doesn’t get saved to your Camera Roll as you would expect. I’m afraid I really can’t recommend the iPhone side of SkyDrive until a good update is released. If you must, take the photos with the Camera app first, then do the Choose Existing dialog to upload it.

If you have ventured to try the app out, and can’t for the life of you figure out how to delete a photo from the SkyDrive iPhone app – you need to click the “share” button in the top right and change the thumbnail view to a “Details view“, then you can swipe left to right to reveal Delete on the item.

Though I didn’t get a chance to play with SkyDrive integration on Windows Phone 7, I think it’s safe to assume it’s a more fulfilling experience than the iPhone app; and I think we can also say that SkyDrive is likely to be strongly integrated into the upcoming Windows 8.

SkyDrive is obviously Microsoft’s answer to iCloud and Google Docs, and while iCloud is still the stronger platform in my opinion, it’s limited to Apple devices. SkyDrive is cross-platform for the most part, and has made a valiant attempt to integrate with iPhones too – hopefully an update will tackle the problems I’ve outlined.

For Windows users and Windows Phone 7 owners – SkyDrive is a clear winner. Even if you’re not a big fan of Microsoft stuff, you can’t argue with 25gb free space. Collaborative editing that doesn’t require the user to login to anything is unique to SkyDrive and could be a great feature for many if you’re sharing with less technically capable users or large numbers who you can’t guarantee have Live / Google accounts.

Have you had a chance to play with the new SkyDrive yet? What do you think? How do you compare it to Google Docs, or iCloud?

I’m sorry, you most likely already had some great plans laid out for Valentine’s day: romantic walks, a fancy dinner, or maybe just a night out on the town. Now all of that planning must go to waste, because the latest versions of Angry Birds will be released to Facebook on February the 14th.

If you think you can ignore because it will be the same as the other versions, think again. Yes, you’ll still be pitching birds across fields to kill pigs, but Rovio’s CEO Mikael Hed has hinted at differences that will set this version apart from the rest.

One change is supposedly a “more collaborative feel”. This hasn’t been clarified, but it shouldn’t be surprising – Rovio no doubt wants to tap in to the potential of gaming on a social network. It’s expected for a Facebook game to include a gameplay mechanic that helps players get ahead if they recruit friends and play alongside or against them.

A more cryptic statement promises more focus on the pigs, traditional villains of Angry Birds. This could reveal itself in any number of ways, from mere story elements to new gameplay modes. We’ll have to just wait and see.

Go ahead – start re-arranging your Valentine’s plans. Now is probably a good time to start looking at a nice Valentine’s day present.

Source: Slashgear

Check out some of the latest MakeUseOf discoveries. Most of the listed websites are FREE or come with a decent free account option. If you want to have similar cool website round-ups delivered to your daily email, subscribe here.

Add Your Website Here!

[thumb]https://castle.so[/thumb]

 

Castle.so – Do you want to upload your files faster and make your client download the uploaded files quickly? If so, stop searching and try out Castle.so, a simple web service that allows users to upload and download files seamlessly without any problems or interferences. No more ads to hinder your movement, and no more “time cap” to wait for. Read more: Castle.so: A Simple Online Tool To Upload & Share Files

[thumb]http://itunes.apple.com/il/app/multi-edit/id476148613?mt=8[/thumb]

 

Multi Edit – If you have a moderate number of contact book entries, at times, you might find it difficult to edit entries or send messages to multiple people at once. Multi-Edit is an app made specifically for that purpose – to make changes to your iPhone phonebook easier. Read more: Multi Edit: An Easy to Use Phonebook Manager [iPhone]

 

[thumb]http://www.krunch.us[/thumb]

 

Krunch – While writing an SMS message or a post on an online forum and social network, you want to keep your text as little as possible. This makes it problematic to share multiple URLs in a single message. Thankfully there is a web service that squeezes multiple long URLs into a single shortened one. This service is called Krunch. Read more: Krunch: Squeeze Multiple Links Into One Shortened URL

 

[thumb]http://pancake.io[/thumb]

 

PancakeIO – When it comes to sharing a text file with your friends or your site’s visitors, you have to first open up your web browser, then manually upload the file, then make a few adjustments before the file is ready to be served. This process is made much quicker thanks to a web service called PancakeIO. Read more: PancakeIO: Easily Share Text Files & Other Documents With Friends Online

 

[thumb]http://drinkify.org[/thumb]

 

Drinkify – Do you know what drink best matches your music taste? As it turns out, there is an app for that. Drinkify is a simple app that suggests drinks for you based on the music you are listening to right now. This idea may just be an offshoot of music suggestions based on your mood, but it works out to be a fun app nonetheless. Read more: Drinkify: Get Drink Suggestions For Your Music

 

Add Your Website Here!

These are just half of the websites that we discovered in the last couple of days. If you want us to send you daily round-ups of all cool websites we come across, leave your email here. Or follow us via RSS feed.

You may be taking your Skype instant messaging and video calls or your iPhone FaceTime for granted, but way back before the standalone IM client was even an idea, there was one major solution: IRC (Internet Relay Chat).

I’m not even going to pretend. I was 5 or 6 years old back in 1995 so this is well before my time, too. In the age of social networking and Internet 2.0, web-based chat rooms are practically dead. They’re all but done with; on the endangered list. Still, IRC is the most popular server/client chat protocol in the world. Maybe the rooms aren’t as active as they were 10+ years ago, but we’ve still got a pulse!

Some boredom and curiosity mixed well together and I’ve rediscovered IRC just recently. Now, I’d like to show you how to use my favorite IRC client, HydraIRC. There are a lot of multi-IM clients (like Trillian) that support the IRC protocol, but nothing really beats the efficiency and oldschool feel of a standalone chat client. You’ve probably heard of mIRC, the most popular IRC client, but here’s a few reasons why I love Hydra:

• It is portable. Download the ZIP and extract it to wherever you like. Put it in your Dropbox or on a flash drive. Portable applications beat out self-installing packages every day of the week.
• It is lightweight. mIRC is a little bulky for me.
• It is free. Everyone loves things that are free.
• It supports everything that you need in an IRC client: multiple servers, DCC, event logs, channel monitoring, an extremely flexible GUI, and more.

You can check out some more, official screenshots at the official HydraIRC website.

Anyway, rusty IRC legend or complete newbie, let’s get you started. Get HydraIRC downloaded. Next step is to figure out where you want to chat and what about, right? You want to go into the File menu, then New Server. Hydra comes preloaded with loads of the most popular IRC servers.

Now it’s on you to pick the network (and associated server) that you want. You can either query up Google and learn a bit about each, or experience can guide you. FreeNode has tons of channels for coding, tech support, general hacking, networking, and things of that nature. EFNet is your oldschool “general” server. QuakeNet and GameSurge are for gamers, and so on.
For this example, let’s go ahead and go on GameSurge. Double click GameSurge, click the IRC server that expands beneath it, and then click OK to connect.

Every server consists of many channels (or rooms). Upon connecting, the Channel List window will pop up. If it doesn’t, you can click into the Channel menu and then Channel List. Click Populate List and after a second, you’ll have a list of every channel on the server. Click the Users header once and you’ll have sorted the channels by the most users. Scroll through, see if there are any you may be interested in, and then click Join.

This is how you join an IRC server and a channel (the easy way). There are hundreds and hundreds of servers out there and thousands of channels. There’s probably an active channel for just about any subject that comes to mind. It’s good to have it sitting in your taskbar for idle moments in between tasks.

If you need any help or want to dive deeper into the subject, let’s chat in the comments. If you really like IRC chatting, consider setting up your own IRC channel and read our post on that.

Newegg has the Hoover Platinum Lightweight Upright Vacuum Cleaner w/ Bonus Portable Canister Vacuum for $199.99 and free shipping.

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Get a quick overview of the periodic table of elements, then zoom in on any element to find out more. It is a simple application to be sure, but one every science student who also uses Linux should check out.

We’ve shown you Ubuntu chemistry applications for students, but we somehow missed this extremely simple and information-crammed version of the periodic table. That’s too bad. There is a lot of information to be found in gElemental, and it’s very logically arranged. There’s a reason it’s so highly rated in the Ubuntu Software Center, and I think it’s more than a competent replacement for a mere poster.

Whether you’re a student or just a science enthusiast, this is an application worth having around for offline reference. If you’re a real nerd, you can just explore it for fun in your spare time. Science is fun.

Using gElemental

If you’ve seen the periodic table of the elements before, the main screen of gElemental will be familiar to you. You’ll see the elements, all in their proper places.

Hover over an element and you’ll see its name, the series it belongs in and its atomic number at the top. By default elements are color-coded according to series; you can find a legend by clicking the drop-down menu at the bottom of the window. You can change this color code in the menu to any of dozens of factors, which is certainly something a poster can’t do.

It’s a simple interface but what else do you want? If what you want are details about the various elements I highly recommend clicking one of them.

You’ll find a variety of information right away, from basic chemical stats to the year and place it was discovered. Click the “Physical or Atomic” tab in this window and you’ll see even more information:

Under physical, you’ll find the melting and boiling points, the heat of fusion and vaporization and more. The atomic tab contains even more information. Rest assured, there’s more data here than most posters you’ve seen.

Are you wondering where this information is all coming from? There’s a complete list of sources which you can find in the menu.

You’re free to look through this and decide how trustworthy the information is, which is particularly nice if you need to cite something you find in this program.

Installing gElemental

Are you ready to install this program? Search your Linux distro’s repository for “gelemental” and you’ll have it in no time. Are you a Ubuntu user? Then simply click here to install gElemental, thanks to the magic of the Ubuntu Software Center.

If you can’t find gElemental in your repositories, head over to the gElemental homepage, where you’ll finds the source code to compile it yourself.

Conclusion

I love simple applications that do one thing very well. So far as I can tell, this program is a great way to quickly pull up information about the periodic table of the elements. Do you agree? As always, leave your thoughts in the comments below along with any alternative applications for the job.

I’m sure that you’ve come across a computer like this, especially a laptop or netbook. The screen is decently large, but the low resolution doesn’t seem to fit well with such a nice screen. Or maybe you’re on a smaller screen, but the correspondingly small resolution causes a couple of headaches when certain applications love to hide their buttons outside of the screen.

So are you stuck with whatever the native resolution is? Apparently not, as there is a simple script that will take care of the problem and increase your monitor resolution beyond what your system considers as normal!

Before You Begin

Please note that the script we are going to be using for this is dependent on a Linux technology called Xrandr, which will do the scaling necessary so that the larger resolution will still fit on your screen. However, the author of the script warns that the “non-free” graphics drivers from AMD and nVidia currently do not support the version of Xrandr needed to do these things.

Therefore, trying to run this script while using those drivers should be done at your own risk, and no results are guaranteed. However, since this script is most beneficial for netbook users, the chance of this issue occurring is slim as there is rarely a need for those non-free drivers on such a low-powered device.

Download and Installation

To get started, you’ll need to head over to this page and download the .tar.gz file. Then extract the the two files found inside into your home/<username>/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts folder. You can see hidden folders in Nautilus by hitting Ctrl + H after you open your Home folder with it. That’s all you have to do for the installation!

Running the Script

To launch the script, you can right-click inside either a Nautilus window or on your desktop. Under Scripts, you’ll find the newrez scripts. I advise that you choose newrez, and only newrez-v if you have issues with the former.

You’ll be presented with a window that will ask you for your new horizontal width. From there, it will take care of the rest. It will calculate the appropriate vertical width to maintain the same aspect ratio. Within a few seconds, you should have your new resolution, ready to go.

Before the script finishes, it’ll ask you if you’d like a launcher so that you can have one click access to your new resolution as the change isn’t permanent. You can also take the contents of the launcher and have the command run during start-up so that you won’t even have to use the launcher to get your new resolution.

Don’t be surprised if the higher resolution isn’t any sharper, as the monitor’s physical resolution is still the same. However, your workspace should be a lot bigger, letting you do more with the space that you have.

In order to go back to the normal resolution without restarting the system, you can run the newrez script again but enter in your normal horizontal width, and you’ll be returned to your normal, native resolution.

Conclusion

For netbooks, this is a great way to get some more space out of your screen to see more of whatever applications you’re running. While less effective, you can also use the script on your desktops with its large screens. If you’re daring enough, you could technically use this script even if you have a 2560 x 1600 monitor, to gain a resolution of 3000+ and make your enormous workspace even larger.

What do you think about newrez? Would this trick be helpful for you on netbooks? Let us know in the comments!

Image Credit: Shutterstock

Last week, Kaiser Permanente released a new app for Android and iPhone devices that will allow its patients to access their own medication information and records through a mobile-optimized website. Kaiser has the largest electronic medical record system in the world, with 9 million Kaiser Permanente patients.

In a press release, the health care organization wrote that “patients will have 24/7 access to lab results, diagnostic information, direct and secure email access to their doctors, and will also be able to order prescription refills”.

Being able to access medical records can be a huge advantage to patients, particularly the elderly, carers and patients with chronic conditions who need to get updates on lab results, fill prescriptions and communicate with the doctor’s office.

The Android app contains sections for medical records, pharmacy center, appointment center, message center, and a Kaiser location facility finder. Your secure, electronic medical record includes your health history, information about allergies and immunizations, details about prescriptions and any ongoing health conditions, health care reminders, and most test results.

The app for the iPhone has not been released yet, but users can in the meantime access their records on a mobile-optimized version of kp.org and save the site as a shortcut icon to their iPhone device.

Kaiser said that in “2011 alone, more than 68 million lab test results were made available online to Kaiser Permanente patients. The mobile-optimized site and the new app make that information, and much more, securely available at members’ fingertips”.

Source: Marketwatch

Check out the top picks from MakeUseOf Geeky Fun during the last couple of days.

1. Raj Falls In Love With Siri (Video)
2. Finally Found My GSPOT (Pic)
3. Dear Facebook, please add this button… (Pic)
4. Illegal Downloads: Before & After Megaupload Shutdown (Pic)
5. Social Media Cheat Sheet For Small Bussinesses (Infographic)
6. Even Google Knows That (Infographic)
7. Photographer’s Love (Pic)
8. The Consequences Of Not Removing Hardware Safely (Video)
9. The Difference Between Music & Porn (Pic)

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Check out some of the latest MakeUseOf discoveries. Most of the listed websites are FREE or come with a decent free account option. If you want to have similar cool website round-ups delivered to your daily email, subscribe here.

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RentSavvy – Looking for an apartment is hard work. Normally apartment listings leave out numerous details about the environment. You have to visit the apartment and neighbourhood yourself to get a complete picture of what you will be getting. But here to change all that is a new web service called RentSavvy. Read more: RentSavvy: Find Apartments That Match Your Preferences

 

FloodMap – In the unfortunate case of a flood, you will want to know how high the flood waters are and which areas are above that level. Only then can you make a wise and calculated evacuation plan. Here to help you with this is an immensely useful tool called Flood Map, that helps determine which areas will be underwater once a flood strikes. Read more: FloodMap: Easily Determine Areas Affected By Floods

 

 

YouTube To Ringtone Converter – Have you found a YouTube video that you want to set as your phone’s ringtone? Normally to do this, you will first need to download the video, pass it through a video-to-audio conversion app and a separate application to extract the part of the audio that you need. But all of this can be done using YouTube to Ringtone Converter. Read more: YouTube To Ringtone Converter: Turn YouTube Videos Into Ringtones For Your Phone

 

 

Hangout.io – Have you ever wanted to invite people to an event without having to create a Facebook event page or messaging them? Hangout.io can solve this problem. It is a simple website that allows users to create ‘events’ and invite people to them. Such a system ensures that only private friends, or anyone who is sent an invite, are invited. Read more: Hangout.io: A Private Event Notification Tool

 

 

Rokker – Taking your favorite songs wherever you go is not easy. A far more convenient option is online media players. One of the best online media players currently out there is called Rokker, a free to use online media player that works best with either Safari or Google Chrome. It is best to first register with Rokker. Read more: Rokker: The Only Online Music Player You Need

 

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These are just half of the websites that we discovered in the last couple of days. If you want us to send you daily round-ups of all cool websites we come across, leave your email here. Or follow us via RSS feed.

Every Friday MakeUseOf Answers honors the Best Answer of the Week to reward those that help us solve the toughest questions. We read every single comment and add the best answers to the shortlist for the contest. For a chance to win, just help us solve questions!

This week we owe our gratitude to:

Best Answer of the Week – Susendeep Dutta

1st Runner Up – Karkala Nayak

2nd Runner Up – Smayonak

Congratulations to the winners!

Great questions can provide great insights. These are the best of the past week:

• Is it true that Android is virus proof?
• How can I get ants out of my laptop?
• What can I get for my points on MakeUseOf?
• Is there an online mail client similar to Outlook or Thunderbird?
• How do I view who is using my wireless network?
• How can I make any app portable?
• How do I know if my Hotmail account was hacked?
• Is there a way to identify a font used in a magazine?
• What’s the easiest database creation software?
• What’s the best computer for Adobe After Effects?
• What’s a good free distraction blocker for Windows?

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Google Docs has always been a good option for people looking to view or edit documents while on the move, but the mobile app has often left something to be desired.

Today Google has taken a step in the right direction by giving the app a much needed update. The most important new feature? Support for viewing documents offline. You can make a document available for offline viewing by opening its menu and tapping the “Make Offline” option, which is represented by a thumb tack.

There is also a new “Offline” menu on the main menu. As you’d expect, it acts as a library containing all of your offline documents, making them easy to find. Updates to these files are automatic when you are connected via Wi-Fi, so they’re remain as current as your last Internet connection.

Offline editing is still unsupported.

Another improvement is a revision of the tablet interface. Tablet owners will now receive a high-resolution version of documents when they are opened and can swipe left or right to move between document pages.

I wouldn’t say any of these changes are revolutionary, but the addition of an offline view does extend the functionality of the Docs app. I have run into situations where I was outside of a data service area but wanted to view a document. Now Docs will have me covered.

You can download the updated app from the Android Market. It requires Android version 2.1 or better.

Source: Android Guys

Looking for an apartment can be hard work. You need to find a place that is affordable, in a good area, nice looking and so many other things, that it can be overwhelming. Sure, a million websites show you the prices for apartments, but sometimes you want to look at apartments while out and about using a dedicated application for your iPhone. What if you are at the apartment and you want to see if the place stacks up to the description?

Fear not, apartment shopper, because with these three US-based iPhone apps, you will be ready to hit the apartment market with your best foot forward and armed with as much knowledge on what is available as possible. Each of these three apps has some great features, and because they are all free, there really is no reason not to download them all! Between the three, it is nearly impossible not to find what you need.

Apartment Guide

This is a great application for finding your next place to live. When you first boot it up, it will ask you to allow it to use your location, if you say yes it will be able to find apartments near you. At first, you can simply tap the “Search Nearby” button, and it will show you the apartments close to you. From the search nearby screen, you can tap refine to narrow the results by price, bedrooms, bathrooms and other parameters.

Clicking any result will bring you to the screen for more details on the apartment. You can quickly click “Call now” to call the place and set up an appointment to see the units. You will also be able to see a detailed description of the units, as well as a breakdown of different models and their prices. They also show amenities, pet policies, community features and special features.

You can also used the advanced search to limit the results it shows you to only ones that meet specific requirements. Of course, if you are not looking for an apartment near you, you can also type in a zip code to search anywhere. Another cool feature is that the app will remember places you have viewed recently as well as those you have called. It also allows you to store any place as a favorite for easy access later.

Trulia

Trulia is a full featured real estate iPhone application that does everything from finding houses for sale, houses that are sold, places that have been reduced in price, open houses and of course apartments for rent. To view the places available for rent, simply tap “For Rent” from the main screen. By default, the application will show you an aerial map view of all the places available in your proximity. You can tap any of them for a more detailed view.

If you do not enjoy looking at a map, you can tap the list button on the bottom right of the screen to view the apartments in an easy to read format. You can also tap the magnifying glass symbol to search using location,  minimum and maximum rent, the number of bedrooms, bathrooms and other things that are important in your search.

You can add places to favorites, but you must create a free account with Trulia. The nice thing about this is that you can get access to your favorites from another device or computer. Trulia, while not as easy to navigate as some apps, is your one stop real estate iPhone application.

MyApartmentMap

This app is incredibly streamlined and easy to navigate. It launches a simple screen that asks, “Where do you want your apartment?” The front page also features any places you have saved on the bottom. To start your search, simply enter a zip code or city into the box and click “Search!”

The results will start with a list, showing you all the apartments for rent in the area. You can scroll through these to find the one you like. At the top of the screen is where you can customize how you view the results. You can click “Map,” which, you guessed it, shows the results on a map. You can also click “Data,” which is an awesome feature that shows averages for the apartments in your results. You can see the average rents based on size and other data about the places you are looking for. You can also view deals on apartments in your area by clicking on the “Deals” tab.

On the top left of the screen you can click “Filter” to tweak the results. Do you need an apartment that will let you keep your dog? Do you need a place that is under $1,000 a month? Well from this screen, you can customize all that and more.

Conclusion

With these three applications, you will be ready to find the perfect place to live, for the right price and in a great location. They make finding an apartment as simple and painless as possible. The best part is; you can take them with you while looking at the places, to make sure they stack up to their description.

Image Credit: ShutterStock

In the last few months, Twitter has become my favorite social networking hangout, mainly because I find it less time consuming than Facebook and Tumblr, and I can certainly update it quicker than I can any of my typically abandoned blog sites. Most of last year I have been using YoruFukurou and a few iPhone apps as my Twitter clients, but now I’m giving the multi-platform TweetDeck a try again, and below are the reasons why.

For a long while TweetDeck was a popular Twitter client amongst power users, but when the software was acquired by Twitter back in May of last year, it got stripped of some of its features, and many users are no longer happy with it. I have experienced a few problems with the software since I started using it, but I keep it in my Dock for when I want to do some heavy Twitter reading and posting.

Multiple Accounts

First off, what’s most useful to me about TweetDeck is that you can keep multiple Twitter accounts opened in your Timeline instead of having to switch accounts as you would in other Twitter clients.

Multiple Columns

If you’re a Twitter power user, you no doubt are keeping up with several different streams of posts at a time, including your favorite contacts, a few keyword searches, and of course your mentions, replies and direct messages.

TweetDeck’s multiple columns are probably what makes it stand above other Twitter clients. In addition to creating columns based on specific keyword or name searches, TweetDeck also contains a core selection of column choices to get you started. You will probably want to click and add the Mentions and Direct Messages columns, and maybe the New Followers column to keep open at all times.

What I find most cool about columns in TweetDeck is that you can set up Mentions columns for more than one account and view them all in the same interface. Again, this saves the hassle of switching accounts to view those listings.

Create Lists

You can also create separate columns for Twitter Lists, and TweetDeck makes it easier to do so. Say for example you want to make a list of your favorite websites posting on Twitter. To do so, simply select a user you want to use to create or add to a list.

When you hover your mouse over the user’s avatar, select the little gear icon, which will reveal a menu of selections. Next, select Add to Group/List. In the resulting pop-up window, you can create a new list and select to make it public or private. TweetDeck will create a separate column for your new list.

After the List column is added, you can add more users to the list by putting your cursor at the top of the column and select the edit button. From there you can add your existing contacts or do searches for others to add to your list.

Notice also that you can actually search and add names from your other social networking accounts as well.

Posting Features

TweetDeck also has a few posting features not found in other Twitter clients I’ve used. One of the best features is scheduled updates. You can write a post and then schedule a time for when you want it posted.

After you set up a time for the update, click the Send Today button and TweetDeck will send your scheduled post in the background. You can even create a column for your scheduled posts (select Core services as mentioned above.)

TweetDeck’s posting features also includes automatic long URL shortening, access to a list of your recent hashtags, and a language translator.

It also has a TweetShrink feature that when applied, attempts to shorten your wordy tweets, replacing common phrases and words with shorter representations.

The Twitter client also includes a Long Tweet feature that is supposed to allow you to use bit.ly to post 140+ character posts from within the software; however, I could couldn’t get the feature to work after several tries.

Preferences

If you plan to take full advantage of TweetDeck, you may need to take some time to explore all its Preferences choices which include changes you can make to the application’s color and font appearance, the type of notifications you receive, which image upload service you want to use, and several dozen more options.

What’s Missing

The new version of TweetDeck has received mixed ratings in the Apple Store where it can be downloaded for free.

For one, there’s hardly no keyboard shortcuts for the app, and one big shortcoming, for me anyway, is that there’s no way to quickly post from a web browser the title and URL of an article. You have to actually copy and paste both these items into TweetDeck’s update box. This is a huge turn off because probably half of my tweets consist of links to articles.

Other than these shortcomings, I’m pretty satisfied with TweetDeck. But I’m interested in what you think of it. Did you use it before like I did and stop? Have you restarted using it? Let us know.

The Amazon Kindle is an amazing device, and it is quickly turning the publishing industry on its head. Just a few short years ago, getting quality books for free wasn’t an option. You could always go to the library, but then the book wasn’t really yours to keep. With the Kindle, all that has changed. There’s an endless supply of free books offered on Amazon. Some are timeless classics which have become public domain works, while others are new works by budding authors looking for exposure and recognition.

I scoured the Kindle Store in search of worthy books to recommend, and came up with a list of nine titles that all seem worthy. It’s an eclectic mix, so be sure to scroll all the way through even if the first one or two don’t catch your eye. These books are all offered for free at the time of this writing. Pricing on the Kindle store can change at any time.

Wild Mustang Man

To start things off, let’s look at Wild Mustang Man. This isn’t a long book (about 181 pages), but it’s one for the girls. Wild Mustang Man is a Western romance story about a single dad, Josh Gentry, who also happens to be a farmer. One day, a lovely lady by the name of Bridget McCloud comes into his farm, takes a look at him, and decides he’s going to be perfect for her ad campaign… and for other things, too.

The books comes from Carol Grace, who authored over 35 novels and has a definite following. Again, this one may not be for everyone, but some of the ladies in the audience might find it to be an enjoyable read.

The Jackpot

The Jackpot is a legal thriller by David Kazzie, who also created the (NSFW) video So You Want to Write a Novel. The video isn’t directly related to the book (thankfully), and is a blatant parody of people who just randomly decide to write a book one day, without realizing what it entails. The book itself received 17 reviews with an average of 4.5 stars, which is fairly impressive for a work in the long tail.

The book’s hero (a lady, by the way) goes through all sorts of trouble trying to return a winning lottery ticket which her boss stole from a client. The whole thing is more complicated, of course, but that’s the main premise.

The Nemesis Worm

Gory cover aside, The Nemesis Worm is our first sci-fi entry. It’s a 60-page novella, not a full-length book, featuring the heroes from author Guy Haley’s book Reality 36. It revolves around a high stakes investigation undertaken by those same heroes (Richards and Klein) to clear Richards’s name from murder.

The Ghosts Of Varner Creek

With 36 reviews and a 4.5-star average, The Ghosts of Varner Creek is aimed at readers 18 and above. It is a Nook sci-fi/fantasy Bestseller, and tells of Solomon Mayfield, whose mother and sister disappear one day in 1909. He goes through life not knowing what happened to them, haunted by lies, speculations, and secrets. He finds out the truth only after he dies. Once again, be warned – this one contains adult content.

Seven Exes Are Eight Too Many

Seven Exes Are Eight Too Many is another foray into romance. Madeleine-Cora Spencer is single, and after being shunned by a friend’s new wife because “you can’t trust desperate single women”, she is finally driven to participate in a “Find Your Prince” reality TV show – only to find herself dumped on an island with seven ex-boyfriends. With 40 reviews and a 4.5-star average, this looks like one entertaining read.

Bright Of The Sky (Book 1 Of The Entire & The Rose)

Bright Of The Sky is one of the few books on this list that have also seen light in dead-tree format. It’s the first part of a four-book sci-fi cycle, and the other three parts do cost money. This reflects a growing trend in the Kindle store, where authors offer the first book of several for free, in the hopes that readers will be hooked and buy the rest of the series. With 109 reviews and a 4-star average, Bright Of The Sky is an epic tale of the far future.

To wrap things up, I would like to share three interesting classics. These are not Kindle exclusives, but are worth a read all the same.

Pride & Prejudice

Pride & Prejudice, Jane Austen’s timeless classic, needs little introduction. It is one of only two books on this list who have their own Wikipedia page. In a nutshell (and in Wikipedia’s words), “The story follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early 19th-century England.” 

This is exactly the type of timeless classic we all have access to in this digital day and age.

Fairy Tales Every Child Should Know

This one’s for the kids – Fairy Tales Every Child Should Know. It is an anthology containing such classics as Sleeping Beauty, The Ugly Duckling, Beauty and the Beast, and more. It’s entirely devoid of illustrations, though – just the text. Still, if you are looking for some classic bedtime reading for your little ones, this is a free book that could go a long way towards educating them in the classics.

A Tale Of Two Cities

A Tale Of Two Cities is one of Charles Dickens’s greatest classics, set in the late 18th century against the backdrop of the French revolution. It may not be light reading, but it’s supposed to be exceptional. If you do read it, tell me how it was.

Final Thoughts

Free books for the Kindle are a mixed blessing. Sure, there are some lovely finds, but there is also an incredible amount of drivel, trash, and empty words. I wish Amazon would make it easier to filter books by price and minimum reviews. They let you sort by price and filter by “four stars or more”, but not by how many reviewers there are… and many, many books have a single five-star review.

Did I miss important free Kindle novels at Amazon? Let me know in the comments.